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25 Jun 2007 : Column 531W—continued
Ms Dari Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children are in local authority care facilities waiting for placement (a) with a foster parent(s) and (b) for adoption. [144433]
Mr. Dhanda: The information requested is not held centrally.
Ms Dari Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) couples and (b) individuals made enquiries to local authorities to (i) foster and (ii) adopt a child or children in each of the last five years. [144434]
Mr. Dhanda: This information is not held centrally.
Ms Dari Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent assessment he has made of administration by local authorities of the support activity required by adoption legislation to parents in fostering and adoption. [144535]
Mr. Dhanda: The Secretary of State has made no assessment of the support services provided by local authorities. This is the responsibility of the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).
In November 2006, the then inspectorate of children’s services, the Commission for Social Care Inspection, published “Adoption: messages from inspections of adoption agencies”, which includes a chapter on supporting children in their new families. This report can be downloaded from the publications page on the Ofsted website:
In addition, as a part of its Adoption Research Initiative, the Department for Education and Skills has commissioned a study into the specialist support services available for birth parents in adoption cases and the services for supporting contact between birth parents and their children. The study is due to complete in June 2008.
In relation to fostering, the National Minimum Standards for Fostering Services require fostering service providers to have in place a clear strategy for working with and supporting their carers, including training and development, out of hours support and arrangements for reviews. The Fostering Services Regulations 2002 place an explicit duty on providers to provide carers with such training, support and information as appears necessary in the interests of the children placed with them. Fostering service providers’ compliance with these Regulations and the National Minimum Standards is assessed by Ofsted as part of its inspections of fostering services.
Ms Dari Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what average time local authorities took to interview and process an application form from (a) a couple and (b) an individual wishing to (i) foster and (ii) adopt in each of the last five years. [144431]
Mr. Dhanda: This information is not held centrally.
The Fostering Services Regulations 2002 set out in detail the requirements of the approval process for foster carers including the information that must be collected in the assessment and who must sit on the
fostering panel. There are no prescribed time scales for the approval process; however, it is in the interests of the provider to conduct approvals efficiently, in order to place children into suitable homes.
The local authority adoption panel’s recommendation about the suitability of a prospective adopter(s) to adopt a child should be made within eight months of the receipt of their formal application. The local authority’s decision on whether the prospective adopter should be approved as suitable to adopt should be taken within seven working days of the adoption panel’s recommendation. The prospective adopter should be informed orally of the local authority’s decision within two working days and written confirmation should be sent to them within five working days.
The local authority should monitor its performance against these time scales and make this information available in its annual report.
Adoption: Foster Care
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps his Department is taking to minimise the disruption to the care provided to fostered children going through the court process for adoption. [145731]
Mr. Dhanda: The Ministry of Justice, through Her Majesty's Court Service, has lead responsibility for supporting the work of the judiciary in the family courts. These courts consider the cases of those children who become the subject of care proceedings brought under section 31 of the Children Act 1989, some of whom will be placed with foster parents while their cases are before the courts.
The Department works closely and collaboratively with the Ministry of Justice, in particular, through the Ministerial Steering Group on Care Proceedings, of which I am a member. Together, we are working to implement the recommendations of the 'Review of the Child Care Proceedings System in England and Wales', which are intended to reduce delay in the family courts and thus reduce the risk of disruption to the lives of children who are the subjects of such proceedings.
On 21 June, a revised 'Public Law Outline' was published for consultation by the President of the Family Division, Sir Mark Potter, who is also a member of the Ministerial Steering Group. This document, when implemented in April 2008, is intended to improve the case management of care proceedings cases brought by local authorities.
The White Paper ‘Care Matters: Time for Change’, also published on 21 June, sets out a range of measures aimed at increasing placement stability for children in foster care. As well as measures to improve the training of foster carers, the White Paper introduced a series of regional commissioning pilots in order to enable local authorities to recruit and retain sufficient foster carers in their local areas.
Apprentices: Lancashire
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many 16 to 18-year-olds in West Lancashire (a) started an apprenticeship, (b) completed an apprenticeship and (c) found employment in the field of their apprenticeship in each of the last three years. [144821]
Phil Hope: The following table shows the number of apprenticeship starts for 16 to 18-year-olds in West Lancashire.
| West Lancashire | England | |||
| Advanced apprenticeship | Apprenticeship | Advanced apprenticeship | Apprenticeship | |
| Note: Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10 Source: Learning and Skills Council (LSC) Work Based Learning (WBL) Individualised Learner Record (ILR) | ||||
Success rates (the number of leavers who meet all of the requirements of their apprenticeship framework divided by the number of leavers who have either left training or successfully completed their programme) by age group and programme type are published in the Statistical First Release: “Further Education and work-based learning for young people—learner outcomes in England.” Success rates for 16 to 18-year-olds are shown in the following table. These figures are not currently available at parliamentary constituency level.
| Percentage | ||
| Advanced apprenticeship | Apprenticeship | |
| Source: WBL ILR | ||
The ILR does not collect information about the field of employment learners go into on completion of their apprenticeships although because the vast majority of apprentices are employed during their training it is probable that most will stay in the same field of employment on completion of their training.
Apprentices: Yorkshire and Humberside
David Davis:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many 16 to 18-year-olds in
(a) Yorkshire and Humberside and (b) East Riding of Yorkshire (i) started an apprenticeship, (ii) completed an apprenticeship and (iii) found employment in the field of their apprenticeship in each of the last three years. [140382]
Phil Hope: The following table shows the number of apprenticeship starts for 16 to 18-year-olds in (a) Yorkshire and Humberside and (b) East Riding of Yorkshire.
| Yorkshire and Humberside | East Riding of Yorkshire | England | ||||
| Advanced apprenticeship | Apprenticeship | Advanced apprenticeship | Apprenticeship | Advanced apprenticeship | Apprenticeship | |
| Note: Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10 Source: Learning and Skills Council (LSC) Work Based Learning (WBL) Individualised Learner Record (ILR) | ||||||
Completion is not a measure used by the LSC. The following table shows success rates (the number of leavers who meet all of the requirements of their apprenticeship framework divided by the number of leavers who have either left training or successfully completed their programme) for 16 to 18-year-olds in Yorkshire and Humberside. These figures are not currently available at local authority level.
| Percentage | ||
| Advanced apprenticeship | Apprenticeship | |
| Source: WBL ILR | ||
The ILR does not collect information about the field of employment learners go into on completion of their apprenticeships although because the vast majority of apprentices are employed during their training it is probable that most will stay in the same field of employment on completion of their training.
Apprenticeships
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many learners (a) participated in programme-led pathways and (b) participated in programme-led pathways and progressed to (i) a work-based learning programme and (ii) a further education programme in each year since the inception of the scheme. [131393]
Phil Hope [holding answer 16 April 2007]: Programme Led Pathways (PLPs) were introduced in 2004/05 for young people on courses of further education in colleges including study towards qualifications that form a mandatory part of an approved apprenticeship framework.
In 2004/05 the number of programme led pathways recorded was 40,510 (rounded to the nearest 10) or 18.7 per cent. of total starts.
PLPs were replaced by programme led apprenticeships (PLAs) in 2005/06. PLAs include those which would previously have been known as PLPs as well as apprenticeships, funded through the work based learning funding route, where the learners concerned are not yet employed. This change was made to provide a clear means to determine eligibility for education maintenance allowance (EMA). PLAs are not a substitute for employer led apprenticeships, which remain the preferred route for apprentices. They exist to enable young people who are not yet able to start an apprenticeship to study those elements of an apprenticeship that are able to be achieved outside an employed situation.
In 2005/06, using the criteria for PLAs under EMA, data from the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) show 24,580 (rounded to the nearest 10) learners starting a programme led apprenticeship—12.3 per cent. of total starts on apprenticeships.
Information on learners who participated in programme-led pathways and progressed to (i) a work-based learning programme and (ii) a further education programme is not readily available. To calculate the volumes progressing to mainstream provision would require a significant resource in terms of analyst time and that information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Assessments: Romford
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students took A2 level examinations in Romford in each year since 1997; and how many passed with grades A to C. [134545]
Jim Knight: The information can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Bookstart Scheme
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) when the extension of the Bookstart scheme announced in the 2006 pre-Budget report to deliver books to five and 11-year-olds is planned to come into effect; [145446]
(2) how much more his Department expects to contribute to the Bookstart scheme via the Booktrust charity to fund the extension of the scheme to deliver books to five and 11-year-olds. [145447]
Beverley Hughes:
Bookstart, which delivers free packs to babies and children aged between 6-9 months, 18 months and 3 years, is not being extended. However, the Department is funding two new free book
offers—Booktime and Booked Up. Booktime, the free book scheme for every 5-year-old, will be delivered in the autumn term 2007. Booktime aims to involve parents and carers in their child’s reading and promote reading for pleasure. The free book, carefully selected by a panel of experts will be ‘FunnyBones’ by Allan and Janet Ahlberg.
Booked Up is the free book scheme for every 11-year-old and this will also be delivered in the autumn term 2007. Every child will be able to choose a free book from a choice of 12 titles, selected to encompass a wide range of reading abilities and interests. Booked Up aims to encourage independent reading and personal choice of material as well as reading for pleasure.
Booktrust is administering both Booktime and Booked Up and the Department is funding the organisation £4 million to deliver both offers.
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